Brown and Warren factions argue over 'moderate' claim

Thursday

Nov 1, 2012 at 6:00 AM

By Joel Senick SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

As he has pursued re-election this year in one of the most predominantly Democratic states in the nation, Republican Scott Brown's voting record over his three years on Capitol Hill — and the extent to which he has or has not lined up with his party's leadership — has been a focal point.

Both Mr. Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, have zeroed in on the issue in debates and on the campaign trail, with Ms. Warren attacking the incumbent for key votes in which he has sided with his Republican colleagues. Mr. Brown insists that he is an independent, truly moderate voice in Washington.

The issue is complicated by numerous scores and analyses that have tracked Mr. Brown's voting record, and which each candidate has highlighted on a selective basis to buttress his or her respective arguments.

Mr. Brown has routinely pointed to a 2011 Congressional Quarterly voting analysis that found him the second most bipartisan member of the Senate.

Alleigh Marre, Brown's campaign spokeswoman, said Mr. Brown votes in the interests of his constituents, regardless of partisan politics.

Critics have cited other statistics to contend that Mr. Brown has voted to kill progressive legislative initiatives by regularly backing the Senate GOP leadership on procedural votes.

“Scott Brown picks what he wants and Elizabeth Warren picks what she wants,” said Richard E. Cohen, a veteran journalist who has covered Congress since 1973 for publications such as National Journal and Congressional Quarterly. “It challenges voters to figure out what they make of it.”

Mr. Brown has to balance the interests of a liberal-leaning electorate back home and the increasingly conservative national party of which he is a member, according to those who study politics. If Mr. Brown wants to be an influential voice within his party, he must vote with GOP leadership on key issues, which are primarily economic, said William Crotty, a professor of political science at Northeastern University.

“When he's needed, he has to vote with his Republican leadership. His survival in Congress is different than his survival at home,” said Mr. Crotty, noting that Mr. Brown is able to more easily cross the aisle on noneconomic and social issues, along with those destined to pass the Senate by a wide margin.

In addition to the Congressional Quarterly analysis, Mr. Brown ranks as the third most moderate Republican member of the Senate on a scale devised by DW-NOMINATE, which issues annual assessments based on a methodology developed by two political scientists in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post review of votes taken in the current Congress found Mr. Brown has sided with his party 66 percent of the time — placing him as the third most moderate Republican in the Senate. By contrast, the most moderate Democrat in the review voted along party lines at a rate of 83 percent.

Mr. Brown also has a voting score of 62 from the American Conservative Union, but the group only gives awards for conservatism to legislators who score over an 80, according to a spokeswoman.

“I am one of those vanishing breeds of senator, the ones in the middle who are trying to work together to get things done,” Mr. Brown contended during the conclusion of the most recent debate with Ms. Warren.

Ms. Warren sees it differently.

“Scott Brown has been fundraising across the country on the importance of Republican control of the Senate as a 'hedge' against President Obama's agenda,” said Alethea Harney, a spokeswoman for Ms. Warren. “His vote is a vote for a Republican majority.”

Mr. Brown has moved across the aisle on some high-profile Senate votes since arriving following a special election in 2010. That year, he was one of just three Republican senators to vote for the so-called Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, and he joined seven Republican colleagues in voting with the Democratic majority to end the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy — thereby allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

More recently, he was one of two GOP senators to vote against a Republican plan that would have extended all Bush era tax cuts for one year, and also lined up with Democrats on legislation ranging from efforts to increase cybersecurity, create jobs for veterans, and provide incentives for businesses to bring jobs back from overseas. The latter three proposals were all blocked by procedural votes supported by most of Mr. Brown's Republican colleagues, thereby cutting off debate before a final vote could have been taken.

But a study released this past May by ProgressMass, a liberal-leaning advocacy group, found that Mr. Brown had participated in Republican-backed filibuster attempts 75 percent of the time on legislation that was supported by at least half of the Senate. These measures would have passed on an “up-or-down” vote by a simple majority of the Senate, but were blocked — mostly by Republicans — before they could be brought to the floor, the group said.

“Scott Brown's misleading claims of bipartisanship ring hollow when we take a close look at his actual voting record,” said ProgressMass spokesman Mathew Helman. “On the votes where he could have displayed true bipartisan leadership, Republican Scott Brown overwhelmingly supported his right-wing Republican colleagues.”

Among the votes cited by the group were three involving jobs legislation backed by President Obama, as well as a proposal to implement the so-called “Buffett rule,” which would apply a minimum tax rate of 30 percent to individuals making more than $1 million per year.

Ms. Warren has attacked Mr. Brown for voting along party lines when it comes to issues of the economy and taxation, as well as for joining Republicans this year to block a bill that promoted equal pay for women and for his 2010 opposition to the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

“Senator Brown doesn't want to talk about his voting record; he just wants to launch attacks,” Ms. Warren said during their most recent debate.